Chipping away at pervasive corruption

Digitization of services and open-government initiatives make a dent in corruption, but it continues to persist in most of the world. Rampant corruption in emerging economies prevents the benefits of development programs from reaching the poor. Early innovations in harnessing the power of citizens to track corruption at the lowest levels of government, such as India’s “I Paid a Bribe” platform or Global Youth Against Corruption (GYAC), give way to more systemic approaches. Conveners such as Transparency International bring together anti-corruption activists and technology experts in hackathons to build tools to fight corruption on the ground. Anti-corruption efforts go beyond tracking to provide training and advocacy tools that allow citizens to connect on corruption issues and take legal action against perpetrators

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Initiatives such as Nigeria’s still-evolving Anti-Corruption Internet Database (ACID) could be one among the first steps toward an end-to-end solution for corruption.